Author Topic: PC050: Komodo  (Read 19921 times)

WolfDeca

  • Extern
  • *
  • Posts: 7
Reply #25 on: June 18, 2009, 08:02:38 AM
I'm not a new age type myself, but I still loved this story.

Mostly because the stories I know based on ceremonial magic follow the premise of 'striving for power for yourself implies not caring who you use and discard in the process.'

Otherwise known as 'power corrupts.'

Compared to this, the 'sure, I'll help you reach your dreams by day and have mind-blowing sex with you at night' attitude of the otherwise fully power-hungry and enemy-collecting Delonie was very refreshing to me.

What's immortality if you don't make any friends in the process? ;)



Father Beast

  • Lochage
  • *****
  • Posts: 517
Reply #26 on: July 11, 2009, 04:15:09 AM

If we're talking about personal philosophies, then I certainly agree that warnings should be more likely to occur on very violent material. If I were going entirely with my own gut, the only things I would probably ever put warnings on would be things likely to be triggering to people who have, for instance, PTSD. I've said before that I, personally, don't really believe in screening content for arbitrary designations of "contains sex" or even "contains blood."

.....................

On the other hand, I draw the line at using the ratings system to enforce different standards for different kinds of people, rather than just note when there's sex going on -- for instance, as Heradel mentions, I won't use a rating system that  distinguishes between gay sex and straight sex. So there's always a process of negotiation going on.

Rachel,
I was wondering if we can have a consistent rating system for escape artists. By comparison, the EP story "Snow Day" was far less explicit, but got an X rating while this one was rated R. I read and enjoyed both stories myself, but others are more sensitive than I, and may miss out on stories that wouldn't offend them because of the inconsistent rating system.

EDIT: OK, My Bad. I just looked up Snow day, and it has been downgraded to an R rating. I could sswear it used to be an X
« Last Edit: July 11, 2009, 04:24:12 AM by Father Beast »



Father Beast

  • Lochage
  • *****
  • Posts: 517
Reply #27 on: July 11, 2009, 04:28:34 AM
Anyway, about the story....

I was expecting the witch in the story to be the bad guy, but it didn't turn out that way. Apparently she still has a good relationship with all the former lovers she sucked dry. With that in hand, I should have expected that the Komodo would turn out to be pretty decent also, but I didn't.

Challenging my assumptions helps the enjoyment of a story, but it isn't enough by itself. This was a good story, but not a great one. good for one read through.



eytanz

  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 6104
Reply #28 on: July 11, 2009, 07:39:33 AM
Anyway, about the story....

I was expecting the witch in the story to be the bad guy, but it didn't turn out that way. Apparently she still has a good relationship with all the former lovers she sucked dry.

She didn't "suck anyone dry" - she wasn't feeding off her lovers. She was feeding off the sexual energy they (mutually) created. She did kill some (a small minority) of them after they were done being lovers, but that was so that they can be transformed into gods or nature spirits, not a real death, and it wasn't a direct outcome of the month of them being together - she said most of her lovers just got back to normal life afterwards with a wish (money, power, etc.) granted.



DarkKnightJRK

  • Peltast
  • ***
  • Posts: 139
Reply #29 on: July 27, 2009, 09:30:26 AM
Very interesting story--the whole nu-pagan stuff is something I don't recall seeing in regular fantasy, and the characters were pretty fleshed out and very different from your standard fare. The differences is probably why I dug it so much. :)



Rishoutfield

  • Extern
  • *
  • Posts: 6
Reply #30 on: September 12, 2009, 07:38:13 AM
Wow, this was really a unique story (for me anyway, I'm sure there's a whole subset of Fantasy fiction involving witch-vampire-werereptile romances), and I was surprised again and again throughout.  I just didn't know where the story was going, and when I thought I had it figured out, it turned sharply and kept going.

Great reading too.  This is the sort of story that makes me want to go back and listen to the PodCastles I've missed.  Kudos!



Unblinking

  • Sir Postsalot
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 8726
    • Diabolical Plots
Reply #31 on: December 11, 2009, 06:15:04 PM
After the first few minutes, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like it.  It seemed like it was starting slow with the talk of finding a new lover and etc...

But then when she started describing the source of power, that intrigued me enough to keep listening, and then on to the fictives, which were also very interesting, and on and on until the end.  Great story!  It's hard to tell a tale from the point of view of someone who is quite different from an everyday human, and do it without a massive infodump, but this does it perfectly, giving pieces of information just as they're needed, so that my understanding of the world expands comfortably as the story keeps my attention.

I thought the fact that anal sex granted her more power than other types was very cool, and it makes sense in a way that can be applied to the magical system.  Very cool.  The idea of the fictive decoys was really cool as well, quite clever. 

Before the story started, she was so powerful, and so in control of everything, that there wasn't much of a story in that part of her life.  But to start the story just at the point where she loses her power worked really well, so that we can understand her power by understanding how the lack of power affects her.

I liked that she drew sexual energy without harming the other person, and in fact giving them a grand ol' time, and that many of them she helped boost to higher forms.  That made her much more sympathetic and something to root for.  I also like that she was unwilling to dominate him, even when the opportunity arose.

I also liked how the "villain" was not really villainous, but just inexperienced in his new form.  At the same time, he managed to be sort of sympathetic despite his lack of compassion (he seemed to know that his former bite victims died, but that didn't really seem to matter much to him).

Also, it was a really good reading by Cat Rambo.  I noticed the technical issues in the first minute, but totally forgot about them after that, so a combination of good story and a good reading kept me too riveted to care.



justenjoying

  • Peltast
  • ***
  • Posts: 144
Reply #32 on: January 16, 2012, 06:27:26 PM
This is offically my favorite Tim Pratt story. Period. I can't fit everything I love about this story in one post, and
keep it shorter than the story itself. I Love This Story.
« Last Edit: January 21, 2012, 11:55:51 AM by justenjoying »



ElectricPaladin

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 1005
  • Holy Robot
    • Burning Zeppelin Experience
Reply #33 on: January 16, 2012, 06:33:09 PM
Holy sh*t. I can't believe I never commented on this story.

Long comment short - I loved it. I'm a huge fan of modern magic in stories, movies, and roleplaying games, and this one took it in a very interesting direction. I enjoyed the complexities of the narrator's immortal existence, the way she helped her lovers to transform into strange new shapes. Deeply cool and deeply weird.

Captain of the Burning Zeppelin Experience.

Help my kids get the educational supplies they need at my Donor's Choose page.